Montana Fouts

Personal: 

Fouts is the daughter of Tim Fouts and Stephanie Williams and has one brother and two sisters. She graduated from Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and earned her master’s degree in sport hospitality from Alabama in 2023. She owns four dogs, two cows, two goats, and 22 chickens. She lists Alabama Head Softball Coach Patrick Murphy and former Alabama assistant coach Alyson Habetz as people who have made a significant difference in her life and models her game after Jennie Finch. Her hobbies include caring for her farm, hunting, fishing, and spending time with friends.

2024 AUX Season: Fouts tallied 856 leaderboard points, including 730 win points, while making her professional debut. She tied for seventh in the league with 480 inning win points and accumulated 100 or more leaderboard points in a game five times. Fouts appeared in eight games with three starts in her first Athletes Unlimited season, posting a 2-3 record with a 6.05 earned run average. She tallied 20 strikeouts over 19.2 innings and earned MVP 1 honors against Team Wiggins on June 11 after striking out a season-high six batters over 4.2 innings to secure victory. Fouts notched her first win of her professional career on June 10 against Team Warren after scattering three hits over 4.0 innings with four strikeouts. She also tallied five strikeouts over 4.2 frames against Team Mazon on June 23.

2023 Championship Season: Fouts was one of 14 players selected in the Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball College Draft. 

Other Professional Experience: Fouts was selected by Smash It Sports Vipers with the No. 23 overall pick in the 2023 Women’s Professional Fastpitch Draft. 

International Experience: Fouts led Team USA to a gold medal at the 2022 World Games, achieving a 0.00 earned run average with 13 strikeouts in 5.0 innings. She also guided the United States to the 2019 WBSC U-19 Women’s Softball World Cup title, going 2-0 with a 0.00 earned run average and 27 strikeouts over 13.1 innings. She helped Team USA claim a bronze medal at the 2019 USA Softball International Cup, maintaining a 0.42 earned run average with six strikeouts in 16.2 innings. As a member of the Team USA roster for the 2023 WBSC World Cup Qualifier, she registered six strikeouts over 2.0 innings to earn a save against Botswana in a five-inning victory.

At Alabama: Fouts was a five-year letter winner at Alabama, making 160 appearances in the circle with 121 starts from 2019-2023. She recorded a 100-32 record with a 1.66 earned run average over 852.2 innings. Fouts is one of only four pitchers in Alabama history to achieve 100 or more career victories. She concluded her career in second place on the Crimson Tide’s all-time list with 1,181 career strikeouts and third in program history with 35 career shutouts. She is also one of seven pitchers in Alabama history to achieve 300 or more strikeouts in a season, joining Kelsi Dunne, Stephanie VanBrakle, and Shelley Laird as the only Crimson Tide hurlers to accomplish this feat more than once.

Fouts threw four perfect games during her Alabama career, including three solo efforts, and pitched five no-hitters. She recorded 54 games with 10 or more strikeouts and led NCAA Division I in strikeouts as both a junior and a graduate student. She received the 2023 Honda Award for Softball and is one of seven players in school history to earn NFCA All-America honors four times. She earned First-Team All-America distinctions as a junior and graduate student, and Second-Team nods as a freshman and senior. She was a member of the NFCA All-Southeast Region First Team in 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023, and was a four-time finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award. Fouts also received First-Team All-Southeastern Conference honors four times and was named SEC Pitcher of the Week 12 times along with two NFCA National Pitcher of the Week honors.

Fouts was a two-time member of the NCAA Women’s College World Series All-Tournament Team (2019, 2021) and a three-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-America selection, including two First-Team commendations in 2022 and 2023. She was a consensus First-Team All-America selection by NFCA, Softball America, and D1Softball after posting a 25-11 record with a 1.49 earned run average as a graduate student. During her final season, she made a career-high 44 appearances with 31 starts, leading the Crimson Tide to the NCAA Women’s College World Series. She finished with a nation-leading 323 strikeouts in a career-best 230.0 innings, including 12 games with 10 or more strikeouts, and tied the program record with three no-hitters as a graduate student.

In her season opener against Georgia Southern on February 10, 2023, Fouts matched her career high with 16 strikeouts. From March 31 to April 8, 2023, she recorded four consecutive double-digit strikeout efforts, totaling 51 strikeouts during the streak. She conceded only two earned runs in 9.2 innings during the NCAA Super Regional against Northwestern, with eight strikeouts. She notched her 1,000th career strikeout while earning a save against North Alabama on March 14, 2023. In the 2022 campaign, she appeared in 39 games with 26 starts, achieving a 24-8 record with a 2.10 earned run average. She also tallied 275 strikeouts with 19 complete games and five shutouts over 190.0 innings and struck out 10 or more hitters 14 times, including a career-high 16 strikeouts at South Carolina on March 27, 2022. Fouts began her senior season with a 10-0 record in her first 12 outings, along with two saves and a 0.77 earned run average.

In 2021, Fouts was honored as the NFCA Pitcher of the Year after leading the country with 349 strikeouts. She also shared SEC Pitcher of the Year honors with Arkansas’ Mary Haff. She registered 22 double-digit strikeout performances in 32 starts as a junior, posting a career-best 27-4 record with a 1.61 earned run average in 213.1 innings. She pitched the first perfect game at the NCAA Women’s College World Series since 2001 against UCLA on June 4, 2021, and matched her career high with 16 strikeouts in games against Mississippi State (March 3, 2021) and Arizona at the NCAA Women’s College World Series (June 3, 2021). Fouts also threw 4.0 innings as part of a combined perfect game against Alabama State on February 12, 2021, and set an SEC Tournament record with 39 strikeouts over 20.2 innings while achieving a 3-0 record to claim Tournament MVP honors.

During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Fouts started in eight games and finished the campaign with a 2.04 earned run average and a 3-3 record. She was named the 2019 SEC Freshman of the Year after starting her college career with a 21-6 record and 193 strikeouts in 181.2 innings, making 33 appearances with 24 starts, and recording a career-best five saves in 2019.